Ideas and Creativity

The art of creation is older than the art of killing. ADREY VOZNESENSKY (1967). Poem with a Footnote.

Some men are more creative than others though there may not be any physiologic difference between the highly creative and the highly idiotic men. Some can play endless concerts other while find difficult to aim a nail straight on the wall. The reasons for these differences in abilities lie in the dancing of molecules in response to chemical stimuli. By genetic programming, training, or by practice, we learn to do many things; some find it easier to learn than others. When training, we are actually training the molecules in our fingers or the cells in our brains to coordinate appropriate responses. In many instances such training results in permanent memory of molecules; like you can never forget to swim. Other skills can be forgotten easily. In all instances however, the chemical changes in one part of the body invariably affect other parts also. You see young violinists shedding tears while playing an intense piece without knowing. Production and secretion of tears is a chemical phenomenon. We also cry when we are happy and when we are sad. Tears are not a letup for our emotions, they have nothing to do with emotions. There are merely to keep our eyeballs moist. The connection begins because when in the state of excitement, eye balls dry out and tears are needed to keep them moistened. However, with time our need to titillate our emotions far exceeded our need to keep our eye balls moistened; the process is now used to release pressure in our sinuses. A tearful eye is a defense response against hazards to the eye and not necessary a demonstration of emotion.

Fine arts and creativity are manifestations of man's innate character to construct. Poetry, painting, sculpture, drama, acting all do nothing for the perpetuation of human race, yet indirectly they help abate the human behavior detrimental to society. Nobility in fine arts comes from this cause. Nothing depicts differences in culture better than the differences in emphasis on types of fine arts. Dance for example is a medium of expression in just about all cultures with connotation of letting the soul go on a merry-go-round. From the sophisticated movements in Swan Lake to reverberations to beatings of Zulu drums, man tries to soothe his soul. It is fallacious to draw common norms of what should be a creative activity. Whatever consoles a soul should qualify as good art. There are no rules to govern it; unfortunately, the pundits of fine art insist on certain sets of rules to judge art. If only they appreciate how fleeting these rules can be, they would understand the requirements of the great Plan where fine arts merely serves a finite purpose.

Science was born at the end of the Renaissance when man completely changed his relation to the world around him as he tried to reconstruct a the universe that would be in a better agreement with the evidence coming from sensory perception. From the Renaissance onward, Western art became radically different from all other art. With the invention of linear perspective and depth, of light and shade, painting was transformed only in a few generations. Instead of symbolizing it began to represent. All of these changes in man's creativity are manifestations of the on-going chemical evolution of our brain.

Study of criticism and taste in the arts is the current definition of aesthetics. Plato draws distinction between what appears beautiful and what is beautiful. Beautiful is what is useful or powerful. When the power is used for good cause it is beautiful or else it becomes evil. Beautiful generally is what is agreeable or pleasurable.